It is commonly held that the orange carrot appeared in Europe in the 16th
century, after development by Dutch agriculturists of a naturally found mutant.

It has been argued that the depiction of orange carrots in art works of the
16th century proves that this was their first appearance.
Art works alone are not considered to be good enough evidence as the colours used
are not always true to type, and artists use colour effects in arranging their
subjects. So in paintings, the differences
between yellow and orange roots could be due to artistic features rather than to
differences between cultivars. One can probably say with certainty that orange
varieties were grown and developed in the Netherlands at this time but this does not prove
their origin in that locality. (Brandenberg)

Also, well before this
time, there are clearly visible orange rooted carrots appearing in an ad 512
manuscript, an 11th century document, 14th century scripts and villa wall paintings
in Italy in 1517.

This page documents the images created in the Villa Farnesia, Rome. (click on
image for larger image)

The images
relating to the Villa Farnesina appear with kind permission of Marialba Italia and is copyright and any use is restricted by law. Any
unauthorised copying or reproduction will constitute an infringement of
copyright.

Spandrel 1 (detail below)Venus shows Psyche to Cupid

Spandrel 3 (detail below)Venus, Ceres, and Juno

Orange Carrot and Parsnip (white) identified

Orange Carrot and Purple Carrot

The villa of Agostino Chigi (1466-1520) is located on the west bank of the
Tiber in an area of Rome known as the "rione Trastevere" where it is now known
as the Villa Farnesina based on its sale to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1577.
The original villa was constructed between 1505 and 1509. Born in Siena, Chigi
became fabulously wealthy as financier to popes and kings. His luxurious villa
built to display his wealth and prestige was decorated under the guidance of
Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) and his co-workers (Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni,
and Raffaellin Del Colle).

The decorations on the ceiling of the loggia and referred to
as the Loggia of Psyche are based on the heavenly adventures of Cupid and Psyche
from the Metamorphoses (Golden Ass) of Apuleius, 2nd century CE. Ten illustrated
episodes of the tale are located in spandrels surrounded by festoons of fruits,
vegetables, and flowers, painted by Giovanni Martini da Udine (1487-1564) that
include over 160 species of plants, all remarkably preserved. Based on a
deprecating letter from Leonardo Sellaio to Michelangelo, Raphael's rival, dated
January 1, 1518 (Florentine calendar) describing the work, it seems plausible
that the work was completed by 1517.

The work is important in the history of art and botany since it records, in
full colour species which existed at the time. An orange carrot appears twice,
together with a white parsnip.

Notes: Red was often confused with purple. Orange
carrots may have been around well before 1100 -
see here.
The above listing is a "best guess" as there is much conflicting evidence.

Carrots were also probably White throughout these periods,
often confused with Parsnips (also white).
There was (and still is!) enormous confusion when trying to sort out the
individual histories of carrots and parsnips. The Latin name
for the parsnip genus is
thought to come from,
meaning "food". This would further explain the historical confusion of the
two vegetables, as well as offer a testament to how important they both were in
the ancient diet.

The images and text
relating to the Villa Farnesina appear with kind permission of the Purdue
University, Indiana and is copyright and any use is restricted by law. Any
unauthorised copying or reproduction will constitute an infringement of
copyright.

Photos were obtained from Frommel (2003).
Identification of species are based on analysis from Caneva (1992).